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Obamacare Architect: Yeah, We Lied to The "Stupid" American People to Get It Passed
Townhall.com ^ | November 10, 2014 | Katie Pavlich

Posted on 11/10/2014 9:31:37 AM PST by Kaslin

Meet Jonathan Gruber, a professor at MIT and an architect of Obamacare. During panel event last year about how the legislation passed, turning over a sixth of the U.S. economy to the government, Gruber admitted that the Obama administration went through "tortuous" measures to keep the facts about the legislation from the American people, including covering up the redistribution of wealth from the healthy to the sick in the legislation that Obamacare is in fact a tax. The video of his comments just recently surfaced ahead of the second open enrollment period for Obamacare at Healthcare.gov.

"You can't do it political, you just literally cannot do it. Transparent financing and also transparent spending. I mean, this bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes the bill dies. Okay? So it’s written to do that," Gruber said. "In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in, you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical to get for the thing to pass. Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not."

GRUBER: "Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage."

A few points. 1.Notice how lying to the American people is completely justified by Obama administration standards so long as the ends justify the means. Gruber would "rather have this law than not," and therefore purposely lying about what the law actually is in order to get it passed is completely acceptable. regardless of the negative effects it has on the lives of Americans. 2. Lack of transparency might be a huge political advantage in the short term, but long term there are consequences from voters, which is exactly what we saw last week during the Democrat blood bath at every level of government across the country. 3. Insulting Americans as stupid and deceiving them is a really good way to lose your power on Capitol Hill, which is again exactly what we saw last week in the 2014 midterms. Twenty-eight Senators who voted for Obamacare are now out of the Senate for one reason or another. 4. Obamacare in its entirely was "sold" on lies. From the promise to keep your doctor to claims insurance rates would go down, not up -- to hiding that the legislation was in fact a tax until of course it was necessary to argue it was a tax to save the legislation at the Supreme Court. Government bureaucrats promising an expansion of care knowing care under Obamacare would be limited, etc. Hell, even the official name for Obamacare, "The Affordable Care Act," is a lie. Obamacare isn't affordable. 5. The process through which Obamacare was shoved through and down the throats of the American people happened as a result of Harry Reid changing Senate rules and without the support of voters. The legislation didn't receive a single Republican vote in the House or the Senate. Also, remember this?

Nancy Pelosi - What she is willing to do to pass Healthcare

Or this?

"Absolutely not a tax increase."

Obama in 2009: "Absolutely Not a Tax Increase"

Obamacare is a sham and the American people have been lied to and deceived every step of the way. Further, Obamacare has never been popular with the American people. Not when it passed and not now. It should also be noted that since before Obamacare was passed conservatives have been rightly screaming about its true contents and impact on American families and the economy. They've been right all along and were called racists for sounding the alarm.

Overall, a lack of transparency has been key to the Obama administration's existence on a whole range of topics, which is why it is one of the least transparent administrations in history despite President Obama's promises.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: 0bamacare; 0carenightmare; california; gruber; jonathangruber; nancypelosi; obamacare; obamacarelies; obamacaretax; stupidvoters; unaffordablecareact
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To: sjmjax

That is an acceptable alternative if done with large numbers, at least once a week.

Medieval style racking would be even better.


61 posted on 11/10/2014 12:53:48 PM PST by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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BTTT!


62 posted on 11/10/2014 7:35:10 PM PST by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31)
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To: Kaslin

Vote stupid! Vote democrat!


63 posted on 11/10/2014 8:40:34 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: Kaslin; ExTexasRedhead; ml/nj; jesseam; sheik yerbouty; Ravi; Red Steel; Rummyfan; MinuteGal; ...
Having never heard of this Jonathan Gruber at all in the past, certainly not as the "architect of Obamacare," I've tried to get a bit of background info on him. Seems like one of those typical leftist academic types that leftist government hacks call upon to do their dirty work for them. Of course, he has no experience in delivering health care in any way, shape or form, but merely enjoys dictating his mandates through the imprimatur of government to cause harm to millions about whom he doesn't give a darn.

One thing that strikes me about this Gruber that's not mentioned in his Wikipedia biography: I have a hunch that in his youth he might have been a Red Diaper Baby, and possibly was familiar with Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."

64 posted on 11/10/2014 9:01:19 PM PST by justiceseeker93
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So, abuse of other FReepers is the order of the day. Nice. /s

One of 2 things happened earlier: My reply to you this morning was deleted or there were more than one technical problem occurring on FR this morning. I lean toward the latter.

My comment you responded to was not directed at you. I don’t need your abuse, don’t care for your threatening tone and find you quite offensive.

Your juvenile comments do not stimulate me. In fact, I find you quite boorish.

I’ll make a deal: You don’t address me and I won’t address you. EVER. Including a reply to me here.

In regards to the link issue (and the core of my reply this morning):

OP Link was updated after I made my post this morning.

This was the URL before

http://freerepublic.com/perl/post_article?forum=news

both in mouse-over and execution. The URL above came from my cache as a result of that URL.

Regardless if it was a temporary technical problem at FR, you were WAY out of line.


65 posted on 11/10/2014 9:22:11 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: Kaslin

So, abuse of other FReepers is the order of the day. Nice. /s

One of 2 things happened earlier: My reply to you this morning was deleted or there were more than one technical problem occurring on FR this morning. I lean toward the latter.

My comment you responded to was not directed at you. I don’t need your abuse, don’t care for your threatening tone and find you quite offensive.

Your juvenile comments do not stimulate me. In fact, I find you quite boorish.

I’ll make a deal: You don’t address me and I won’t address you. EVER. Including a reply to me here.

In regards to the link issue (and the core of my reply this morning):

OP Link was updated after I made my post this morning.

This was the URL before

http://freerepublic.com/perl/post_article?forum=news

both in mouse-over and execution. The URL above came from my cache as a result of that URL.

Regardless if it was a temporary technical problem at FR, you were WAY out of line.


66 posted on 11/10/2014 9:24:09 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: LookingUp

AMEN!


67 posted on 11/11/2014 2:22:24 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: justiceseeker93

One wonders just what Herr Gruber is a perfesser of, exactly? I suspect it ain’t physics or something intellectually disciplined. Some lefty political mumbo jumbo I would expect.


68 posted on 11/11/2014 2:27:52 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Kaslin

Pelosi said it this way...”You’ve got to Pass it to KNOW WHAT’S IN IT”!!!


69 posted on 11/11/2014 3:17:08 AM PST by Ann Archy (ABORTION....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

That is exactly what she said


70 posted on 11/11/2014 3:19:41 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Never


71 posted on 11/11/2014 3:20:14 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: justiceseeker93

You are probably right about that.


72 posted on 11/11/2014 4:56:15 AM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: wastoute

You mean everything we said about the law was true / s


73 posted on 11/11/2014 5:07:22 AM PST by rlbedfor
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To: Kaslin

TOTALITARIANCARE (FORCE) architect.

The LIE is the weapon used most often by the criminal/progressive/socialist/totalitarian/anti-truth SCUMBAG. An ace-of-spades in one of the multiple decks of domestic enemies cards.

ESAD Gruber.


74 posted on 11/11/2014 5:08:20 AM PST by PGalt
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To: Rummyfan; Carry_Okie; usconservative

BUMP!


75 posted on 11/11/2014 5:13:15 AM PST by PGalt
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To: justiceseeker93

His “world congress” bio:
Dr. Jonathan Gruber is a Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He is also the Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a Research Associate. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Public Economics, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Economics.

Dr. Gruber received his B.S. in Economics from MIT, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard. He has received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, a FIRST award from the National Institute on Aging, and the Kenneth Arrow Award for the Best Paper in Health Economics in 1994. He was also one of 15 scientists nationwide to receive the Presidential Faculty Fellow Award from the National Science Foundation in 1995. Dr. Gruber was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2005, and in 2006 he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. Dr. Gruber’s research focuses on the areas of public finance and health economics. He has published more than 125 research articles, has edited six research volumes, and is the author of Public Finance and Public Policy, a leading undergraduate text.

During the 1997-1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. He was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. In that year, he was named the 19th most powerful person in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine. During the 2008 he was a consultant to the Clinton, Edwards and Obama Presidential campaigns and was called by the Washington Post, “possibly the [Democratic] party’s most influential health-care expert.”
http://www.worldcongress.com/speakerBio.cfm?speakerID=6468


76 posted on 11/11/2014 6:57:58 AM PST by machogirl
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“Nice article from Huff/Puff” 2011 directed from Mr. Gruber to Mitt Romney. (selected quotes with link)

Jonathan Gruber, an M.I.T. economist hired by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to help craft health care reform, sharply criticized the Republican presidential candidate for distinguishing between his bill and President Barack Obama’s in an interview with Capital New York published Wednesday.

“They’re the same f***ing bill. He [Romney] just can’t have his cake and eat it too,” Gruber said. “He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he’s just lying. The only big difference is he didn’t have to pay for his. Because the federal government paid for it. Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/obama-health-care-law-mitt-romney-jonathan-gruber_n_1098036.html


77 posted on 11/11/2014 7:05:47 AM PST by machogirl
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To: wastoute; All
One wonders just what Herr Gruber is a perfesser of, exactly?

On the record, he's a professor of economics. But economics on the college campuses these days, with the notable exception of a handful of institutions, is socialist economics.

78 posted on 11/11/2014 7:06:24 AM PST by justiceseeker93
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To: machogirl

More from Huff/Puff article linked above

Gruber is a Democrat, and told The New Yorker that Romney never asked him about his political views. He also recalled that Romney argued for the individual mandate since it would eliminate the “free rider” problem of uninsured patients seeking care at emergency rooms. The White House also contacted Gruber to do the economic modeling for Obama’s plan.

In the interview with Capital New York, Gruber also expressed frustration that the Supreme Court might decide the fate of health care on “political grounds.” “It’s very disturbing,” he said.


79 posted on 11/11/2014 7:08:07 AM PST by machogirl
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To: machogirl

From the Capitol link. (the hypocrisy is RICH with these guys)

“I’m frustrated that the future of the American health care system rests in the hands of one or two of these unelected people who might make the decision based on political grounds,” Gruber, an M.I.T. professor, told me in a phone interview on Monday, a few hours after the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act. “It’s very disturbing.”

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2011/11/4156059/architect-obamas-health-care-plan-fears-political-decision-supreme-


80 posted on 11/11/2014 7:10:08 AM PST by machogirl
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